Project Description

PARCELS

@ Oxford Art Factory

11/01/2018

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Aaron Christensen

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Starting off in northern New South Wales musical hub, Byron Bay, disco-soul five piece Parcels brought their Overnight World Tour to Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory, just over a week after playing the first ever NYE in the Park. The band formed in 2014, and after the release of their self-produced debut EP Clockscared in 2015, the band traded Byron Bay for one-way ticket to Berlin and signed to French record label Kitsuné. The band’s first label releases came in 2016, a steady stream of singles; Herefore, Anotherclock, Myenemy and Gamesofluck, with the last two being included in 2017 EP release, Hideout, with three new tracks; Hideout, Older and Allaround (yes, the titles are all one word). 2017 was already a huge year for Parcels, but the icing on the cake was their collaboration with masked French electronic masters Daft Punk for the electro soul-funk mega-hit Overnight.

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With UK and European shows and festivals already locked in before the release of Overnight, it soon became a world tour, with a US festival and Japanese and Australian dates announced soon after. For about 3 weeks through the middle and end of November and start of December I couldn’t check my Facebook feed without seeing that Parcels had yet another venue upgrade or an extra date announced, and if that isn’t a testament to the skill and dedication of the band, I don’t know what is.

Parcels opened their set at Oxford Art with the playful guitar of Myenemy, emerging through the colourfully lit smoke in equally as flamboyant, intensely hipster attire to ring in the drum and synth that set a literally deafening roar/scream/cheer through the multi-liquid soak that was the crowd. After the crowd (sort of) settled down, they launched into the funky, mellow, yet dancey break-up song Hideout. They followed up with Allaround, perhaps the best example of the bands penchant and talent for barbershop quartet-like vocal harmonisation delivered with one of the tastiest bass lines of the last 12 months.

Leading on from this was the ambient, wall of sound electronic tune Herefore before playing a soft, ethereal (new) song, the band giving no allusion as to the title. After this came the funk-pop masterpiece Anotherclock. The gentle, ambient opening, to the plucky introduction of a delicate guitar lick, a pop-sensible beat, playful keys and that uniquely Parcels disco-funk arrangement was the highlight of a flawless performance. The thing to remember at a Parcels show; you’ll never be listening to filler. Every single song has an unprecedented level of polish and arrangement and just musically, vocally and lyrically works (see Tame Impala’sCurrents for what I mean). The final three began with the eponymous song of the debut EP, Clockscared, a softer, more melancholy track that highlights the instrumental intricacies and stylistic influences of the band.

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Hideout EP: Album Art

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Overnight. It’s purely funkadelic. It’s smooth. It’s silky. It’s very Daft Punk. However, I feel that Overnight is more of a natural progression; Parcels would’ve produced a song of this style and calibre at one point. It’s a particular avenue Parcels’ music can explore that was facilitated by the experience and rhythmic mastery of the French duo. To hear the song that’s responsible for propelling a non-local local band to burgeoning stardom performed to a crowd of a few hundred was an amazing moment as a reviewer, a Parcels fan and a fan of funky waves caressing my ears.

The final song of the night was the 80’s style synth-pop gem, Gamesofluck. Now remember what I said about Parcels’ music? No filler, that’s right. This also becomes a teeny tiny problem; the fans demand an encore so vigorously and raucously that I was sent deaf yet a second time. A mind-blowing one-track encore was delivered and I think on this occasion I can forgive myself for not writing down the song name. I don’t have an excuse for it, I was just lost in the music. And that’s the hallmark of an amazing show.